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‘Aging World - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?’ At The Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea

What is love? ’tis not hereafter; Present mirth, hath present laughter; What’s to come is still unsure: In delay there lies no plenty,— Then come kiss me, Sweet-and-twenty, Youth’s a stuff will not endure.

William Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night,” Act 2, Scene 3

Old age. Negative attitudes, stereotypes, judgments and assumptions about older people abound. Of all of life’s stages, old age is not regarded positively. Childhood, adolescence and adulthood are. Old age is viewed as a deficiency, even a disability, largely because of the deterioration of the human body and mind. Ageism is widely accepted, if not normative, for most cultures. There are even aging phobias—gerontophobia and gerascophobia—the abnormal or incessant fears of growing older or biological aging. For those who attain it, old age is the final phase of life before death, the end.

The world’s population is aging at an accelerated rate. Declining fertility rates combined with improvements in life expectancy over the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st have produced dramatic growth in the world's elderly population. People aged 65 plus now comprise a greater share of the world's population than ever before, which has broad implications for economic growth and immigration trends. By 2030 there will be 34 nations where more than 20 percent of the population is over 65. The problem is not confined to Europe and North America. Singapore and Korea will be in that category by 2030, while China will also face severe pressures due to its aging population.

Numerous individual artists have addressed aging, most often in the context of reflections about “the body.” A good example of this is the work of John Coplans who, before his death in 2000, created detailed, self-portraits of his nude body. As a broader topic, aging has yet to receive significant curatorial attention like other identity constructs, such as gender, race, ethnicity, class and economic status. In 2017-2018, the Belvedere, a Viennese museum, presented Die Kraft des Alters (“Aging Pride” or, more precisely, The Power of Old Age.) It was a multi-media exhibition organized around six themes: Eternal Youth/Impressive Age, Mortality, Solitude/Solidarity, New Freedom, Leisure and Memory. Rather than indulging a general pessimism about old age, “Aging Pride” considered the opportunities, focusing on images of old age that radiate strength, beauty, and joy: “the power of life’s later years.”

E.J.DOMOSO, "Unboxing of 21 Grams," 2019.

Courtesy Seoul Museum of Art.

In contrast, “Aging World - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) offers a different, less optimistic, curatorial take on aging, a point of view that is shaped in large measure by the fact that South Korea is aging faster than any other developed country. The most recent (2016) government census revealed that the number of people aged 65 and over in South Korea reached 6.8 million in 2016, nearly 14% of the country’s total population, making the country a “super-aged” society. (In contrast, young people—those aged up to 14—numbered 6.8 million.) As the museum puts it, “Ageism amplifies oppression, alienation and inequality both individually and collectively, and exerts a strong influence over all generations. To make matters worse, mass media reinforces the negative stereotypes about aging.” (SeMA, Press Release Version 1, August 26, 2019.) SeMA’s perspective is more pragmatic than the Belvedere’s.

In Korea, people look at aging through contemporary media, typically commercial advertising, which pressures one to be, look and act young. Aging creates anxiety and fears, so much so that the elderly have become “otherized,” that is categorized or regarded as alien or different from the larger society. In a nation known for its robust economy, high-technology advances and eager assimilation of Western culture, nearly half of Korea’s elderly population over the age of 65 lives in poverty, obliging some to resort to collecting recyclables or even, in extreme cases, to prostitution. About a quarter of the aged in Korea lives alone. Although the 1981 Elderly Welfare Law declared that the primary responsibility for elder care should be shouldered by the family, the younger generation seems close to abandoning the Confucian tradition of taking care of their parents.

“Aging World” takes a critical view of aging, using three organizational themes (as well as several innovative public programs) that focus on negative perceptions about and influences on aging. “Section 1: Anxious Desire” raises questions about a prevailing social atmosphere where beauty and its counterpart, ugliness, are bracketed by biases towards chronological age. Aging is viewed through the idea of one’s appearance, mediated by plastic surgery, indulgent shopping and obsessive self-maintenance. “Section 2: Ageist Myths and Stereotypes” examines age discrimination and alienation in social relationships, particularly in capitalist societies. Finally, “Section 3: The Future Not Afar” looks at alternative modes of elderly living environments and practical approaches to aging.

In “Aging Pride,” the Belvedere’s exhibition, the museum showed works primarily by well-known and -regarded artists, ranging from Max Beckmann to Jeff Wall. Collectively, they illustrated an optimistic view of how age in all of its facets can be thoughtfully integrated into our lives. The SeMA exhibition is radically different.

By and large, the fifteen artists and artist teams in this exhibition are not widely known internationally. (There are none of the now-familiar brand name artists that often populate biennial rosters.) Moreover, these artists work in and across multiple media in the fields of art, design and architecture. Using the museum’s checklist as a guide or itinerary, it is advisable to visit individual artist websites to understand their content, media and contributions to “Aging World.” SMSM, for example, is an applied art collective that is devoted to health, well-being and happiness. At SeMA, the collective exhibits “Warning,” a 2019 vinyl mural in five parts accompanied by other media. The work addresses our everyday anxieties about aging, cleverly combining suggestions on how to deal with aging and offering puzzles for the museum-goer to solve, much like a dementia test. Everyday Practice, a graphic design studio, imagines a future architectural landscape with “Golden Silver Town” (2019), demonstrating the ways that the elderly are seduced and consumed by capitalist society. E.J.DOMOSO, another artist group, presents a SeMA-commissioned work, “Unboxing 21 Grams” (2019), which refers to the estimated mass of the human soul. More specifically, the project addresses ways to minimize possessions and the process for preparing for death.

Hyejin Kim, SeMA’s curator, has taken an innovative approach to “Aging World.” She has focused on the anxieties associated with aging, addressing the very notions of youth and beauty. As a social issue, “Aging World” reflects on the discrimination associated with ageism. Finally, Kim chose and commissioned artists who use alternative, even nontraditional, media. “Aging World” is not a flat, hung-on-the-wall exhibition. It is interactive and informative without resorting to gimmick.

Expect informed commentary and critical essays in my mash-up of art topics. My three careers—art advisor, management consultant and anthropologist—mesh well to write

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Expect informed commentary and critical essays in my mash-up of art topics. My three careers—art advisor, management consultant and anthropologist—mesh well to write about art’s creators, innovators, influencers and entrepreneurs. As an art advisor with a global eye, I specialize in Post-War art, helping to build distinguished collections (www.linnpress.com).
I keep myself fresh by teaching art market economics and history at New York University, doing independent research at Princeton University and writing about contemporary art.
My personal experiences with art can be read at https://independent-collectors.com/collectors/clayton-press-and-gregory-linn/. Follow me on Facebook @LinnPress and Twitter @ClaytonPress.